North Carolina - Page 1527

I've looked at those as well. I am just afraid to do something that requires us to keep up with turning the eggs. I'm home all the time but we do run around when DH is off work and can be gone for most of the day sometimes. I would hate to mess a hatch up because we forgot to turn eggs.  Brinsea does have an advanced model of the mini incubator that has an automatic turner in it. It's like $130 w/o shipping. I plan to show DH that one too. I'm not sure how much he wants to spend on an incubator and since he is the one who makes the money for the house I have to get his permission before ordering something. We have to make sure things are in our budget. It would work out fine to have something that only holds a few eggs at a time too.

 

Edited by marlowmanor - 3/30/12 at 8:00am

If we get an incubator without a turner how often do eggs have to be turned? I'm home all day most of the time, but we tend to run around when Dh is off work. I don't want to mess up a hatch if we miss a turning. I'm liking the Brinsea mini incubator since it holds a small batch of eggs. A small batch at a time would work great for us. How much do you turn the eggs? Do you just turn them a little or all the way over? I guess we would have to mark the eggs in a couple places so we know if they have been turned or not as well?

 

This incubator business is so complicated! I'm excited to be getting one and hatching some eggs but so afraid I'll do something wrong.

At least 3 times a day some turn 5 times always an odd number.  At least that is how many time a day I turn mine. 

I have the Brinsea Eco 20, and you can roll the eggs by hand, all at one time! You just turn the whole incubator on its side, as many times a day as you like. You don't have to even touch the eggs to roll them, and it's a real time saver! You can always get the auto turner, but that's $50 extra. ( I have one because we often go on weekend camping trips, and we need the turner.)

 

I'm very happy with mine, and it fits about 30 bantam eggs. It holds the heat and humidity extremely well, and it's super easy to clean. I love it! Of course, now I have an incubator problem--I need another one, because all my chickens are laying and I want to hatch everything lol! But my current bator is totally full, and the eggs are due on Easter. So I have a ton of excellent eggs to hatch, but no space. This seems to be a common problem, doesn't it?

turning isn't super important to do it exact. lol. I have never used an auto-turner. I try to turn them 3 times a day, I almost never do it at the same time, just whenever I remember to. lol. When I wake up, sometime in the middle of the day, and before I go to bed. I don't completely turn mine, I just turn them a bit. You can mark an X on one side and set them in the bator with the X up, then turn them all the same direction, so the X will be on the side, or under the egg, etc. Thats how I have kept track of it.

 

Right now I use a home-made incubator now and just have mine in an eggcarton and just turn the eggcartons so I don't have to do them all by hand one by one. Any store bought incubator go for a forced-air model. the still air are the harder more finicky ones, the forced air aren't nearly as bad. 

 

 

I have found Rogers Feed and Seed in Pelzer SC to be the most reasonable priced on hovabator incubators.  They used to sell on ebay and had reasonable shipping.  I looked today and they do not have anything currently listed.  Their # is 864-947-6925

 

These are from discountpetcare.     I have never bought from them.

I did find several listings that were reasonable and shipping was only $20.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOVABATOR-INCUBATOR-2362N-AUTOMATIC-EGG-TURNER-1611-/250631203384?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=     $109.99

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-GENESIS-HOVABATOR-INCUBATOR-1588-ALL-HATCHING-EGGS-/250631205427?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5ac8b233   $139.99

 

 

Almost forgot.  http://www.rushlanepoultry.com/

Rush Lane Poultry has very good info on their website on how to build an incubator out of a cooler (ice chest).

 

Edited by Southern Bee Lady - 3/30/12 at 12:24pm

I watched the rush lane pultry videos on YouTube when I was making my incubator. Also, my new turner is based on one I found on you tube, search for videos by tlgrimmy, he has a very nice rolling turner.

RF, De works wonders!!! It kills all our ants around here, it also kills the chiggers ( which we get over run by ) 

 

Here is a picture of our Lavender Orpington trio  Sorry it's not a great picture 

 

Another Raleigh resident